Littlefoot’s mother’s death was certainly tragic and a standout in the first movie. But what if somehow she had survived? What would have happened to the LBT universe? Well, based on speculation, I have thought of how each of the movies and the TV Series would be have different. What I found was not pretty.

Here are the scenarios as to how she could have survived.

Land Before Time (original) events

Scenario 1: Littlefoot does not wander off. Sharptooth goes after Cera instead of both Littlefoot and Cera. As Littlefoot does not call for his mother, as he is still asleep, Sharptooth eats Cera for a late night snack. Sharptooth continues on his reign of terror afterward, killing and eating more dinosaurs the rest of his. (Note, the events after this are the same as Scenario 2.)

Scenario 2: Littlefoot and Cera are chased by Sharptooth. They are rescued by Littlefoot’s mother, who is able to dodge being mortal wounded by Sharptooth. Sharptooth may or may not have been killed (if he isn’t, he will kill again over and over for the rest of his life.) The Great Earthshake happens. Herds are separated. Littlefoot remains with his alive mother and never meets Cera, Ducky, Petrie, or Spike. Cera may have met the others and led them. They likely would have followed Cera to the Mountains that Burn, where Ducky, Petrie, and Spike would not have been saved by Littlefoot, who never met them, and hence perished in lava. Cera, unable to be rescued by the others, would have become a snack for Domeheads. Littlefoot is the only main character left of the five now and comes to the Great Valley with his mother. However, he is dismayed to see that, unlike what his mother thought, there seem to be few longnecks to play with and, having never met Cera, Ducky, Petrie, and Spike, may have been a believer in herd separation and hence had few friends.

Land Before Time II: Great Valley Adventure events

– As Cera, Ducky, Petrie, and Spike have died, Littlefoot wasn’t awoken by them and slept through the night. Ozzy and Strut meanwhile, unbothered by the kids, most of whom have died, are able to get eggs without being hampered.

– As Littlefoot slept through the night, Chomper’s egg wasn’t moved. They never became friends. Chomper hatches and stays with his parents. He becomes a regular sharptooth, learning to eat the meat of other dinosaurs.

Land Before Time III: The Time of Great Giving (events)

– With all of the gang dead, except possibly Littlefoot, Hyp wans’t rescued and died in the tar pit.

– Members of the Great Valley may have died without the help of Cera, Ducky, Petrie, and Spike,and Hyp.

– Littlefoot, Nod, and Mutt might have died, unable to push the boulder at the Velociraptors without the help of Cera, Ducky, Petrie, Spike, and Hyp.

Land Before Time IV: Journey through the Mists (which may have come before Land Before Time III chronologically) events

– Littlefoot and Ali set out alone, as they actually did in the regular universe Land Before Time, and try and get the Night Flower to save Grandpa Longneck. However, without the help of the others, Ali is unable to break the rocks after the earthshake alone. Littlefoot and Archie are killed and eaten by Dil and Ichy.

– Not getting the Nightflower, Grandpa Longneck succumbs to his illness and dies.

– Ali has some explaining to do to Littlefoot’s mother and Grandma Longneck of why Littlefoot will never be coming back. The two older longneck’s mourn the deaths of both Littlefoot and Grandpa Longneck.

– It is possible that Grandma Longneck and Littlefoot’s mother may have left the Great Valley with Ali’s herd, as Grandpa Longneck and Littlefoot are dead. If they did, there will be no more longnecks left in the Great Valley.

– Ali spends the rest of her life haunted by the death of Littlefoot, likley beating herself up for agreeing to take him toward the Land of Mists. The two have no hope of falling in love now as Littlefoot is dead.

– Ali may have eventually gotten through the rock wall only to be made a meal by Dil and Ichy herself.

Land Before Time V: The Mysterious Island (events)

– with Littlefoot and the gang dead and without Grandpa Longneck, the herds would undoubtably have split up, many may have died of hunger and thirst, and it is unknown how many, if any, would return to the Great Valley as they wouldn’t have found all of the food wihtout the children’s efforts.

– Chomper continues to eat meat and continues on his path to be a regular Sharptooth

Land Before Time VI: Secrets of Saurus Rock events

– Events here aren’t as drastic, though the Great Valley might not be that inhabited after the events of the previous movie in this altered universe. However, Topps, Grandpa Longneck, and the five main characters are dead here.

– Bad luck wouldn’t have hit the Great Valley, as Saurus Rock was never broken. However, given the other events of this altered timeline, this is very small consolation indeed.

– As Grandpa Longneck is dead and Doc wold never have gone near Saurus Rock, the two sharpteeth seen in the Great Valley might still be alive.

Land Before Time VII: The Stone of Cold Fire events

– Without anyone believing that there is good in him and with no chance at redemption, Pterano would almost certainly have remained bad and, over time, become as evil as Rinkus and Sierra.

Land Before Time VIII: The Big Freeze events

– Without being able to help the children, Mr. Thicknose might not have been able to get redemption and may have fallen out of favor with the grownups and lost his teaching position.

– The Mountain Sharptooth, having never been killed by Thicknose as he’d have no reason to go into the Mysterious Beyond, would have lived and killed more dinosaurs for food.

– Tippy and his herd, having not been rescued by the others, as they are all dead, would have died of hunger in the Mysterious Beyond.

Land Before Time IX: Journey to Big Water events

– Mo, having not been helped to find his home again, may well have been killed by the Swimming Sharptooth when he got free.

Land Before Time X: Great Longneck Migration events

– Grandma Longneck goes on the journey with Littlefoot’s mother. Grandpa Longneck and Littlefoot have long been dead.

– There they meet Bron, who hears the sad news that his son and father-in-law have died. Littlefoot’s Mother would have lived with her husband upon finding him. Grandma Longneck, now a widow, may also have stayed with them.

Land Before Time XI: Invasion of the Tinysauruses events

– Big Daddy and the other Tinysauruses, having never befriended Littlefoot and the others as they are all dead, will remain wary of bigger dinosaurs for the rest of their lives.

Land Before Time XII: The Great Day of Flyers events

– The Great Day of Flyers would never have been altered by Petrie as he died years earlier.

– Tricia would have drowned.

– Guido would have been eaten by that Spinosaurus without Petrie’s help.

Land Before Time XIII: The Wisdom of Friends events

– Loofah, Doodah, and Foobie would have been killed without the Gang’s intervention.

– The rest of the Yellow Bellies may have met a bad end too as the Gang didn’t help them defeat the Baryonxes by dancing.

TV Series events

– The TV Series would, for all intents and purposes, have been about Chomper, a leat-eater killing meat eater, and Ruby.

– Had Ruby met Chomper’s family without them having met the Gang of Five, likely she would have become “dessert”.

– Mama Flyer would have died in the mud, not rescued by Chomper. Petrie’s siblings would now be orphans. (Maybe they’d live with Pterano, which wouldn’t bode well for them.)

– Dara would have died as Chomper wouldn’t have been there to save her either.

– Without Petrie and Guido being around, Swooper would have stayed at Hanging Rock.

– Skip would have died in that fire.

– Belly Draggers might have eaten someone as Cera wouldn’t have foiled them the first time.

– Ali is still being lied to by Rhett as the others weren’t alive to expose him.

– Mama Fast Biter’s eggs would have hatched near the Great Valley, which would have led to trouble.

The Land Before Time XIV: Journey of the Brave (events)

– Assuming that Bron still traveled to the Great Valley to see his wife and mother-in-law, he would have died as Littlefoot & Co wouldn’t have been there to rescue him.

This is why you don’t go back in time and save someone because it may end up killing many more. Just look up Star Trek the original series character called helen. If kirk saved her, she would have delayed America’s entry into WWII causing axis forces to win. Both your story and mine end in many casualties. So don’t mess with time/fate!

I actually did think of a LBT story where Littlefoot would meet the Rainbow Faces, who would have the capability of time travel for some reason. Littlefoot would suggest the Gang of Seven go back in time and defeat Sharptooth perhaps a day BEFORE the Great Earthshake, thus stopping Littlefoot’s mother from being killed.

The plan ends up working, as they trip Sharptooth off a cliff to his death where he drowns in a pool of water. However, Littlefoot doesn’t notice as he gets back into the time thingy, that Ruby has vanished and that Chomper suddenly turns less friendly and becomes more snarly and tries to take a bite at Cera before he too vanishes, as does Petrie.

When Littlefoot returns to the present, he finds that Chomper, Ruby, and Petrie are gone but his mother is still alive. (No, this one doesn’t quite go like my thoughts above where loads more die.) When Littlefoot asks about Petrie, Littlefoot’s mothering informs him that Petrie’s mother had died in a mudslide a short while ago and that Petrie and his siblings had gone to live with Pterano, who was still banished for five cold times. When he brings up how Chomper saved her, Littlefoot’s mother is confused and says that it would be nuts for him to befriend a Sharptooth and that she had actually grounded him for the Sinking Sands incident in movie II so he couldn’t have been out that night. (Yes, the damage also results in one less sibling for Ducky.)

(At this point, as Littlefoot knows he can alter the timeline back to normal, I’m wondering if it would be out of character for Littlefoot to, at this moment, to decide to leave Petrie’s mother dead as long as he now gets his own mother or do you think it’s plausible that Littlefoot wouldn’t act yet just so he could keep his mother?)

Littlefoot goes and tracks down Petrie, Chomper, and Ruby. Chomper is dangerous for a while, having never been made friendly. However, Ruby, who is billingual, ends up helping him learn Leaf Eater. They also still have to fight Red Claw. It takes years, but after reaching adulthood, they finally defeat Red Claw.

However, to their shock, Chomper, who had been acting nice, reveals that, in his new form, he LIKES being a mean Sharptooth and that he was merely using them to get rid of Red Claw so that he can rule the Mysterious Beyond for himself.

A fight ensues, and eventually, Chomper, along with Screech, Thud, and others, possibly including Dil and Ichy, attack the Great Valley, resulting in the deaths of Mr. Threehorn and Mama Swimmer. Littlefoot and his friends all run, wondering what to do. The Rainbow Faces meet them. However, Littlefoot is still hesitant to lose his mother all over again.

However, his mother, upon hearing this, tells him that she would NEVER want the world to be worse just so she could live to see Littlefoot grow up. Before the group can get too close to the time thing, which now takes longer to make as they are bigger, Chomper heads after them.

Littlefoot’s mother tells them to go and fights him off to buy Littlefoot time, telling him that she loves him and goodbye. As Chomper, in his bad form, is stronger than Sharptooth, he soon fells her and Littlefoot has to watch her die all over again. Her efforts, though, allow Littlefoot to get to the time thingy and go back in time and stop himself and the others from stopping Sharptooth from killing Littlefoot’s mother. Littlefoot then goes back to the present, which, having undone the world he altered, is now basically where he left off at about age 11 when he left.

He hugs Chomper and says that, though his mother is dead, her death at least allowed him to be nice and save lives that way and that it’s foolish to try and change the past.